In this tutorial, we'll learn how to design a Classic Guitar. We'll be creating each shape and effect used to make this in Photoshop. No outside images or textures are used. We will make extensive use of the Shape Tools, the Warp Tools, and various effects to achieve the final design. Let's rock this digital illustration!
Final Image Preview
Let's take a look at the image we'll be creating. Also, we recently published a guitar illustration tutorial called Design a Shiny Bass Guitar Illustration Using Photoshop, though this one has a different result.
Step 1
Create a new document with a width of 600px and height of 1000px. Set the resolution to 100 and Background contents to White. Fill the "Background" layer with #dbdbdb. Drag one horizontal and one vertical guide to the center of the canvas. Press D to load the default foreground and background colors.
Grab the Ellipse Tool (U), open the Geometry Options window, Select Fixed Size, then set the width and height to 200, and turn on From Center. Alt-click exactly on the Intersection of the guides. A circle shape is formed.
Now drag two horizontal and two vertical guides, and snap them to the circle. These guides will help you to understand the scale that I use while warping our circle into the Guitar's body shape.
Step 2
Go to Edit > Transform > Warp, and warp the circle as shown below, then apply it. Play around until you are satisfied with the shape you get. Now, rasterize the Shape (Layers > Rasterize > Shape). Change the name of the layer to "Body."
Press Command + T and check the dimensions of our image. Transform your shape to match the dimensions shown below. I recommend you to do so, to maintain the scale and perspective used in this tutorial. Duplicate the "Body" layer to the "Rib" and hide this layer. We will be using this later.
Step 3
Move the "Body" Layer to the top. Change the foreground color to #ac6c2c and background color to #975415. Go to Filters > Render > Fibers and change the Variance to 4 and Strength to 64, then click OK.
Change the foreground color to #683604 and background color to #9f5007. Apply a Gradient Overlay with the gradient set to Foreground to Transparent and use the values shown below. Apply a stroke with a fill type of Gradient and Gradient set to Foreground to Background, with the values shown below.
Step 4
Now unhide the "Rib" layer and move it 35px right. Change the Foreground color to #90381a. Command-click on the layer icon to load the selection. Fill the selection with a Foreground color. Now go to Filters > Noise > Add Noise. Set the amount to 8 and click OK. Apply a Gradient Overlay with the settings shown below.
Step 5
Create a new layer at the top and name it "Rosette." Get the Eliptical Marquee Tool (M), set the style to Fixed Size, and set both Width and Height to 100px. Alt-click on the center, then fill the selection with the foreground color #90381a. Press Command + D to deselect.
Pick the Move Tool (V), and press the Up Arrow Key five times, while holding the Shift key to move the "Rosette" layer 50px up. Swap the foreground and Background colors. Next, render Fibers with a variance of 4 and strength set to 64. Apply an Inner Shadow with the settings shown below.
Step 6
Create a new layer name it "R_Ring." Get the Eliptical Marquee tool. This time fix the height and width to 120px. Alt-click in the center. Change the foreground color to #ffe47c. Fill the selection with the foreground color.
Again, get the ELiptical Marquee Tool, fix the height and width to 105. Alt-click in the center and hit Delete. Move the "R_Ring" layer 50px up. Set the Layer Blending Mode to Soft Light. Go to Layer Styles and Apply Bevel & Emboss with the settings shown below.
Step 7
Let's create the bridge next. Create a new layer and and name it "Bridge." Pick the Polygon Tool (U), then change the sides to 3 and color to black. Draw a Rectangle as shown below Go to Edit > Transform Path > Warp, and mold the shape into something as shown below, then apply it. You can take any basic shape and transform it into any complex shape you need, just maintain the perspective.
Using the Move Tool, move the "Bridge" to snap it to the guides as shown. Change the Foreground color to #90381a and background to #ac6c2c, Go to Filters > Render > Fibers, and apply fibers with a variance of 8 and strength of 64. Set the Layer Blending Mode to Color Burn. Apply a Bevel & Emboss. Create a new layer and name it "Bridge1."
Set foreground color to #dcad9d. Command-click the "Bridge" layer icon to make a selection. Go to Select > Modify > Contract, and set the value to 3px, then click OK. Fill the selection with the foreground color, set the layer Blending Mode to Soft Light and deselect. Apply a Drop Shadow to the "Bridge" layer with the settings shown below.
Step 8
Now, let's make the saddle. Make a new layer name it "Saddle." Set the foreground color to white and
background color to #807f7e. Pick the Rounded Rectangle Tool. Open the Geometry options, select Fixed size, then set the width to 63px and height to 487px.
Click somewhere on the Canvas and rasterize the layer. Render fibers with a variance of 14 and strength of 64. Press Command + T, Rotate the image to 90 degrees, and move the image to the center. Change the values for Horizontal Scale and Vertical Scale to 20% and 10% respectively, then press Enter two times. Move the shape over the "Bridge" layer. Apply Bevel & Emboss with the settings shown below.
Step 9
Now we will make the nuts. Create a new layer and name it "Nut1" Pick up the Ellipse Tool. Open the Geometry Options window, then change the width and height to 20px. Click anywhere on the canvas. Apply Bevel & Emboss and Contour with the values shown below.
Set the foreground color to black. Pick up the Brush tool and set the diameter to 5px. Click once in the middle of the Circle. Command + T on "Nut1." Enter 50% for both Horizontal and Vertical Scale and apply it. Duplicate the "Nut1" layer five times and name them "Nut2," "Nut3," and so on. Move each "Nut" layer to align them as shown below.
Step 10
Let's create the neck of the guitar next. First, lets move all the layers down. Hold down the Shift key and select all the layers except the background. Pick up the Move tool. Hold down the Shift key and press the Down Arrow seventeen times to move everything 170px down. I removed all the guides. Press D to load default foreground and background colors. Now make a new layer and name it "Neck."
Pick up the Rectangle Tool. Open the Geometry options and set the width to 75px and height to 425px. Click on the canvas and place the rectangle as shown. Go to Edit > Transform > Perspective and drag the top right corner of the Rectangle approximately 10px to the left. Rasterize the layer, then set the foreground color to #875545 and background color to#48260d. Render fibers with a Variance of 1 and Strength of 64.
Step 11
Now duplicate the "Neck" layer and name it as "Heel." While the "Heel" layer is highlighted Command-click the "Body" layer. Press the Up Arrow button three times to move the selection 3px up. Hit the Delete key.
Now go to Filter > Liquify. Choose the Forward Warp Tool (W), and manipulate the image as shown below. Press OK and return to the main window. Place the "Heel" layer below the "Body" layer. Apply a Gradient Overlay to the "Heel" layer with the settings shown.
Duplicate the "Neck" layer name it "NeckSide." Command-click the "NeckSide" layer icon to load the selection and fill the layer with a Black color. Move the layer 2px right. Place the "NeckSide" layer below the "Body" layer.
Apply Bevel & Emboss to the "Neck" Layer the values shown below. Command-click the "rosette" layer and press Delete key. Now click on the "R_Ring" layer, Command-click the "Neck" layer and hit the Delete key. Click on the "Neck" layer and apply a Gradient Overlay with the settings shown below.
Step 12
Now let's make some rivets. Create a new Layer, name it "Rivet." Pick the Eliptical Marquee Tool. Set both the height and width to 10 pixels. Click on the canvas and fill the selection with white. Apply an Inner Shadow and Gradient Overlay with the values shown below. Duplicate the "Rivet" layer seven times, name them as "Rivet2," "Rivet3"...."Rivet8." Hide all this "Rivet" layers for now.
Step 13
Now we'll create the guitar's frets. Create new layer, name it as "Fret." Grab the Elliptical Marquee Tool, set the width to 100 and height to 10px. Click on the canvas and fill the selection with wight. Pick the Gradient Tool, apply the gradient from black to white as below. Press Command + D to deselect.
Go to Edit > Transform > Warp. Drag all the corners and place the fret as shown. Press Command + T and transform the image as shown below. Take the Eraser Tool (E) and erase the edges. Duplicate the "Fret" layer several times and align them as shown. Merge all the Fret layers name it as "Fret" and change the Layer Blending to Hard Light. Pick up the Eraser Tool and erase the extra edges.
Step 14
Now it's time to unhide our rivets. Unhide the "Rivet" layers and align them as shown. Merge all the rivet layers to name the resulting layer to "Rivet." Apply a Gradient Overlay with a gradient of Transparent to Black using the settings shown below.
Step 15
Now let's draw the headstock. Make a new layer below the "neck" layer. Name it "HeadStock," and change the foreground color to black. Pick the Pen Tool and draw the shape shown below. Rasterize the layer, then go to Filter > Liquify. Liquify the image as shown below. Click OK and return to main window.
Duplicate the "HeadStock" and name it "Headstockside". Move it below the "Headstock" layer. Click on the "HeadStock" layer. Set the foreground color to #875545 and background color to #48260d. Render Fibers with a Variance of 4 and Strength of 64. Copy and Paste the Layer Style of "Neck" layer onto the "HeadStock" layer.
Modify the Gradient Overlay settings of the "HeadStock" layer as shown below. Now click on the "HeadStockSide" layer, grab the Move Tool, and move the layer 6px to the right.
Step 16
Now we will create a nut below the headstock. First, duplicate the "Saddle" layer and name it "NutTop." Bring it to the front. Place it below the Headstock. Now press Command + T and transform it to fit into the desired place as shown below. Erase the extra edges if any are present.
Step 17
Now it's time to create pegs. Change the foreground color to #e9e8e8. Make a new layer name it "Peg1." Pick up the Ellipse Tool and set a fixed size of 15px width and 20px height. Click on the canvas to draw an ellipse. Apply a Bevel & Emboss and Gradient Overlay with the settings shown. I selected the gradient type Silver from the Metals preset.
Rasterize the layer, then create a new layer and merge the "Peg1" layer with it. Name the
new layer "Peg1." Now duplicate "Peg1" two times and name the new layers "Peg2" and "Peg3."
Now click on the "Peg2" layer. Press Command + T and transform the image with a Horizontal scale of 90%. Apply the same to the "Peg3" layer with a Horizontal Scale of 70%. Create a new layer below the peg layers, name it "Peg_A." Pick up the Rectangle Shape Tool with a fixed width of 5px and Height 10px. Click on the canvas to draw a rectangle. Apply a Gradient Overlay and Rasterize the layer. Duplicate the "Peg_A" layer to "Peg_B" and "Peg_C." Align "Peg1" and "peg_A" as shown below. Similarly align "Peg_B" and "Peg2" as well as "Peg_C" and "Peg3."
Now merge "Peg_A" and "Peg1" layers. Similarly "Peg_B" and "Peg2." Also, "Peg_C" and "Peg3." Move the pegs to align them to the headstock as shown. Now Shift-click on each peg layer to select all the three peg layers. Press Command + T. Apply a transformation as shown below, and be sure to match the perspective of the "Headstock" layer. Now align them with the headstock as shown below.
Merge the three Peg layers and name the resulting layer "Pegs_right." Duplicate the "Pegs_right" layer and name it "Pegs_left." Move the "Pegs_left" to the other side of the headstock. Press Command + T and apply a Horizontal transformation. Move it near the headstock. Perform a manual rotation until it matches the perspective of the headstock. Now place the "pegs_left" layer below the "headstock" layer.
Step 18
Now create a new layer and name it "small_peg." Pick up the Ellipse Tool and make a small circle with a fixed width and height of 15px. Apply a Bevel & Emboss and a Gradient Overlay with settings shown below.
Make a new layer and draw a circle just above the "Small_Peg" with a fixed height and width of 8px. Apply a Gradient Overlay to the new layer as shown below. Merge this layer with the "Small_peg" layer and name it "Small_Peg1." Duplicate the "Small_Peg1" layer multiple times: "Small_peg2," "Small_peg3" ..."Small_peg6," then arrange them as shown below. Merge them into a new layer named "Small_Peg." Change the Layer Blending Mode of the "Small_Peg" layer to Hardlight.
Step 19
Now we'll create the last part of our guitar, which is the strings. Make a new layer name it "string." Take the Brush Tool with a diameter of 1px, and click just above the black part of the "Nut1" layer. Next Shift-click on the "NutTop" to form a line as shown below. Make five more lines similarly on the same layer. Apply a Gradient Overlay and a Drop Shadow with the settings shown below.
Step 20
Now we have to connect these strings to the pegs. Make a new layer and name it "strings1." Take the Brush Tool and draw six lines as shown below. Change the Layer Blending Mode of the "strings1" layer to Hardlight.
Step 21
Merge all the layers except the "background" layer. Name it "Guitar." Duplicate the "Guitar" layer to "Guitar1." Command-click the "Guitar1" layer icon and fill the selection with Black. Hide this layer for now.
Click on the "Guitar" layer. Press Command + T and rotate the image 10 degrees. Unhide the "Guitar1" layer and move it below the "Guitar" layer. Go to Filters > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Apply it with a radius of 6px. With the Move Tool position it to the right side of the Guitar and lower the Opacity to 15%.
Step 22
Now we'll work on creating a new layer between the "Guitar1" and "Guitar" layers. Pick up the Elliptical Marquee Tool, change fixed size to normal, then draw a selection and fill it with black as shown. Deselect the selection, then apply a Gaussian Blur with a Radius of 50px.
Step 23
Now click on the the "Background" layer. Change the foreground color to black and background color to #f18162. Pick up the Gradient Tool(G) and set the gradient to Foreground to Background, apply the gradient from the right bottom corner to the center of the canvas. The resulting background is shown below.
Conclusion
Hope you learned something new and had fun in this tutorial, and you rocked this guitar.